25 early recipes

Buttermilk pancakes made with a thin pour batter that bubbles up tender and tall. Quick weekday breakfast, ready in 20 minutes with pantry staples.

Crushed graham crackers, chopped almonds, and walnuts create a nutty, buttery cake with old-fashioned charm. Serve warm in squares dusted with powdered sugar or topped with whipped cream.

Beef and pork meat loaf loaded with melty mozzarella, Parmesan, and sautéed red peppers. Herb-seasoned with basil and thyme, glazed with ketchup, and ready in under an hour.

Potato omelette with sliced boiled potatoes, sauteed onions, and beaten eggs cooked together in a skillet until firm. A hearty, old-school breakfast with just five simple ingredients.

Turn farmer's market garlic scapes into a fresh & brightly flavored green pesto. An early summer seasonal treat.

Rhubarb strawberry jam preserves the brightest pairing of early summer in jars, with crushed strawberries, simmered rhubarb, sugar, and liquid pectin. Sweet, tart, and water-bath canned for shelf-stable storage.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies you can bake chewy or crunchy just by watching the clock. Two cups of rolled oats give them real heft while shortening keeps them tender. Pull them early for chew, longer for crunch.

This recipe comes from Italy by way of Argentina. Maxwell Mowry of Charleston got this recipe when he lived in Buenos Aires in the early l970s. Since there are more people of Italian ancestry in Argentina than of Spanish ancestry, it is not surprising to find panettone there, where it is called in Spanish pan dulce, meaning 'sweet bread.' At Christmas in Argentina, pan dulce is eaten accompanied by sparkling apple cider. Houseware shops in Argentina sell special tall cylindrical springform pans to bake the pan dulce, but an empty, greased 1-pound coffee can may be used.

Pumpkin recipes are blowing up Pinterest this year, more than I remember seeing before. I love the put-pumpkin-in-everything craze as much as anyone, but this year I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Maybe because it started too early, before I was even thinking about pumpkins. Maybe because I’ve had pumpkins on my porch for almost 2 months and I’ve yet to actually cut one open. Either way, I’m late to this game. If you’re not all pumpkin-ed out yet, you may enjoy this recipe for chocolate pumpkin bread. It’s free of nuts, dairy, gluten and all grains. As far as sweet breads go, this one is as healthy as it gets.

You can keep fit and healthy running after real tennis balls, and also, with our nutritious edible version. Eggs contain an essential nutrient that is gaining a resurgence in the nutrition world, the nutrient is called Choline. Scientists in the mid 1800’s discovered that the molecule, Choline, in the yolk of eggs was exactly the same as a substance, ‘Neurine’, in our brain. Choline plays a key role in human cell health, nervous system activity and development, liver function, early growth and development (it is important for pregnant women to eat choline-rich foods). Spinach is rich in iron, this is important for red blood cells which help in the transportation of oxygen around the body – essential for all that running around. Take advantage, serve and then, love all!

Vegan slow cooker black bean chili with brown rice, carrots, and tomatoes cooked overnight in a crockpot. A hands-off, two-day recipe where time does all the heavy lifting for deep, rich flavor.

Preserved grape vine leaves for making dolmades all year. Fresh-picked early-summer leaves get bundled, blanched in salted water, then packed into jars with rock salt brine for long-term pantry storage.

Apothecary weight conversions for historical recipes and old-time preparations. Scruples, drams, and apothecary ounces explained for anyone working with pre-metric or early modern formulas.

Homemade pickled Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) with dill, caraway, mustard seed, garlic, and chili peppers. A crunchy, tangy canning project for preserving your fall or early spring harvest.

Hot apple pandowdy is an early-American upside-down apple dessert: cinnamon-sugar apples baked under a soft butter cake batter, then inverted and served warm with whipped cream.

Fiddleheads on toast turn early-spring foraged fern shoots into a brunch dish with white sauce three ways: with hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, or rolled in ham and broiled.